Being salt: Christian witness through international partnerships Linda Kurti

Transcription

1 Being salt: Christian witness through international partnerships Linda Kurti Introduction Thank you for your welcome. It is a pleasure and an honour to be invited to address you today. I have been thinking about the title of this conference: salt and light. When I was first asked to speak of course the notion which struck me immediately is that of being salt - you are the salt of the earth, but if that salt has no flavour what good is it? It is an important question, and one which is worth asking for each of us, but particularly for the Anglican Board of Mission, which as the mission agency of the Anglican Church of Australia has a particular mandate to spread the Good News and to care for God s people within Indigenous communities in Australia and overseas. I ve been in my role as the head of ABM for 15 months now, and in that role I ve been reflecting on just these things. So today I d like to share with you my understanding of Anglican mission and particularly the way in which ABM lives that out, and I d like to tell you a little about the things which we are doing today to resource the Anglican Church in Australia to engage more deeply in mission. Along the way I ll provide a little history and a few stories. Yates 1 noted that Anglican mission is best understood by looking at what people do, rather than by examining theory, so I ll try to provide you with a picture of what we do by way of showing you how we understand God s mission, and our mission, today. History and theology ABM was formed in 1850 by the Bishops of the then Church of England in Australia, here in Sydney. It is thus one of the oldest non-governmental organisations in Australia. Originally named the Australasian Board of Missions, its mandate was to: promote the Mission work of the Church among the Aborigines in Australia and in the Islands adjacent; to assist in carrying out the 1 Yates, T. E. 1988, 'Anglicans and Mission' in Sykes, S. and Booty, J. (Eds.), The study of Anglicanism, SPCK, London, p Linda Kurti 1

2 Missions established by the Church of England through her Missionary Societies; to co-operate in supporting the Melanesian Mission and other Missions to the Heathen, especially in Australia; to seek out, train, and support Missionaries; to labour in such Missions as the Board may direct or may originate; and generally to further unity of effort in the Missions of the Church. 2 The earliest work of ABM was to support the Melanesian Mission, being conducted through New Zealand. The Board provided funding for a boat, named the Southern Cross, which plied the waters of Melanesia, now the Solomon Islands, and ferried missionaries from island to island, and young men to the school which the Mission established in New Zealand, and later on Norfolk Island. When I was in the Solomon Islands last year, visiting the now independent Church of Melanesia, I was delighted to hear that there is still a boat named the Southern Cross (not the same one of course), which still ferries Anglicans from island to island. To see the continuity between mission efforts of the 1850s with the church s activities in the 21st century is to begin to see the salt with which mission leavens the world. ABM was formally made a body of synod in 1872, when the first general synod of the Church of England in Australia was held. At that time its name was changed to the Australian Board of Missions. At that time, while still supporting the Melanesian Mission and a mission to the Chinese immigrants living in poor conditions in Sydney, the Board was also seeking ways to minister to the Indigenous people of Australia, and in 1882 the first mission stations were established. In 1891 ABM sent the first Anglican missionaries to Papua. You will probably have heard of the Revs. Albert Maclaren and Copland King who set off in a boat from Queensland and landed in what is now Dogura in August of You will probably not have heard of Mr and Mrs. Tomlinson, who joined them in October of Albert Maclaren was dead of malaria by the end of 1891, and Copland King remained in PNG for the rest of his life, building the church of PNG. Mrs. Elizabeth Tomlinson, however, outdid them all, spending a total of 48 years in PNG and still holding the record for the longest serving missionary in Papua, dying in She was integral in assisting the fledging 2 Anglican Board of Mission 1900, The Jubilee Festival of the Australian Board of Missions , W.A. Pepperday & Co., Sydney Linda Kurti 2

3 Anglican church there; David Weatherell in his comprehensive book on the Anglican mission in Papua New Guinea wrote that - She quickly restored domestic order at Dogura, where the ineptitude of the clergy had reduced the station to chaos, and in 1898 she set up house for the mission at Dog s Hill near Mukawa. 3 Elizabeth cared for children who were brought to the mission by their parents, established new mission stations, and was a consistent witness to the love of Jesus Christ in the way she cared for Papuan and European alike. ABM continued to expand the work which it supported overseas, as opportunity presented itself. In 1913 missionaries were sent to China and Japan, and in 1915 ABM took over the British missionary work in the Torres Strait. Funding began for the Diocese of Jerusalem in 1918, and continues today in the form of our Good Friday Gift appeal for the province of the Middle East. Partnerships began with the Dioceses of Singapore and Borneo in 1950, and in 1960 ABM began to support the Anglican Church in Korea. Since the early 1980s we have had a partnership with the Anglican Church in Burma (Myanmar). In the 1980s and 1990s we supported several missionaries in parts of Africa, and also the Diocese of Polynesia. We began to work with the Episcopal Church of the Philippines in 1994, and in the last few years we have built a partnership with the Diocese of Egypt and North Africa, a diocese we have already supported for a number of years through the Good Friday Gift. ABM s partners today From Church of Melanesia 1850 Australian dioceses supporting Indigenous ministry 1882 Papua New Guinea 1891 Anglican Church in Jerusalem/Province of the Middle East 1918 Diocese of Singapore 1950 Anglican Church in Korea 1960 Anglican Church in Burma (Myanmar) 1980s Episcopal Church of the Philippines 1994 Today, the Board has affirmed its commitment to Indigenous ministry and to the church in the Asia-Pacific region, although it also continues some support for the church in the Middle East. About half of our support goes to the Church in PNG, as our nearest neighbour, and about half of our specific ministry programs support 3 Wetherell, D., 1977, Reluctant Mission: The Anglican Church in Papua New Guinea St. Lucia: Queensland University Press. p 86. Linda Kurti 3

4 Indigenous ministry and leadership here in Australia. Our understanding of ourselves and our mission has changed over the years. We have evolved from a sending agency to one which understands our role as supporting our partners to engage in their own mission endeavours. Rather than sending Australians to PNG on a regular basis for instance, we support the Papua New Guinean Church to empower local people for ministry and mission amongst their own people, as in the Philippines, Korea and other places. We remain committed to raising up and strengthening the church, but now we ask our partners what they want us to do - if they want us to send people with specific skills we will seek out those people, but otherwise we believe with our partners that the local people are best placed to share the Gospel to their own people. This is in line with what Yates considers as two pillars of Anglican missiology: indigenisation and education 4. I just want to show you a little what that looks like in terms of our historic mission and today s missionaries. In the latter part of the 19th century, we sent European Australians into the remote parts of Australia to assist the Aborigines. Today, there are Indigenous people running the two theological colleges, Nungalinya and Wontulpbi-buya, and Indigenous people teaching theology. We have had a long association with the church in PNG, and a century of Australian missionaries who have helped to shape that country s enculturation of the Gospel. Today, the leadership of the church is Papua New Guinean and the church celebrates itself colourfully using a blend of indigenous and European customs. Here in Australia, ABM was able to support Fr. Hiley and Mother Rita Diweula as the first PNG missionaries ever, to come and live and work amongst Indigenous people in the Northern Territory. In Melanesia, the Sisters of the Church receive over 50 new vocations a year, and minister to the people of the Solomons, and particularly the women and children, as they address issues of domestic violence and child exploitation. But what do we mean by mission? You will find if you look through ABM literature over the last 130 years that an understanding of mission emerges, and that it changes over time as well. In 1998 the 4 Yates, p Linda Kurti 4

5 Board of ABM adopted a revised form of the Anglican Consultative Council s Marks of Mission, and these stand today as the foundation of ABM s understanding of holistic mission. The Five Marks for ABM are: Witness to Christ s saving, forgiving, reconciling love for all people; Build welcoming, transforming communities of faith; Stand in solidarity with the poor and needy; Challenge injustice and oppression; and Protect, care for and renew life on our planet. 5 Today, we strive to live out these Marks through two program areas, one which looks after ministry activities - such as theological training, leadership development, and ministries to specific groups such as young people or prisoners - and one which looks after community development activities - those which will benefit the whole community such as water and health care. We understand the work of Christ as incarnational, and pray that God, working through us, will help us to witness to the saving work of Jesus Christ in what we say and what we do. We also understand that God s saving work is God s, and not ours - we seek to serve God through serving the people of God, and trust that we have a part to play in God s mission, in which we participate as the church of God and specifically, the mission agency of the Anglican church of God. Mike McCoy, a South African missiologist who worked for ABM in the 1990s and who adapted the five marks of mission, considers that there are three cornerstones to an incarnational (visibly manifest) theology, gospel, church, context. God is made manifest as God s people live out the Gospel in response to the atoning work of Christ, as a gathered people called church, and within a specific context. He suggests that a fundamental characteristic of an Anglican approach to mission is its contextual understanding: the local church everywhere [has] the freedom to discern the shape of its own contextual mission response and to work out the questions of method, agency and so on, within an agreed missiological framework. 6 For ABM, the framework is found within its own adaptation of the Marks of Mission. We do the work that we do in response to God s love for us as demonstrated through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we 5 McCoy, M. 1998, 'Going in peace, or breaking in pieces? Anglican unity and the mission of God', intermission, vol. 4, no. 1, pp Ibid, p. 30. Linda Kurti 5

6 understand that as Christians we are called to seek wholeness and fullness of life for all God s people, spiritually, socially, physically, communally. How do we do that? Salting the pot - living out God s mission through ABM First and foremost, we do that through partnership. Our partner churches overseas and here in Australia each have a life and story of their own. For the Church of PNG, their history is integrally tied up with the church of Australia, and with our shared colonial history. Perhaps the most potent example of that is the story of the Martyrs of Papua New Guinea. In 1942, ten ABM missionaries were killed by the Japanese when they invaded PNG. The story of the martyrs of PNG is very much Australia s story, as much as it is PNG s. It is one of the many bonds which ties the two countries, and churches, together. (If you are not familiar with the stories of the martyrs, then I commend to you the new booklet on the martyrs which is available to download on the ABM website.) The ten Australian Anglican missionaries, and two Papua New Guinean evangelists, who died at the hands of the Japanese are only some of the 313 missionaries and religious workers who died during the occupation of PNG. The ten Australians were those who had believed that God had called them to offer for missionary service through ABM, and went to PNG to serve God s people. Some had been there for years, some for only months. They believed that in living out their faith in service, they were following the example of Jesus. And in following Jesus, these 12 also gave their lives rather than seek the easier road of safety and security. The Bishop of Newcastle said in a speech given at an ABM meeting in Sydney in 1943: I know of no incident in the whole missionary history of the Church more thrilling and, at the same time, more humbling, than the decision of the Bishop of New Guinea and his staff to remain at their posts amongst their children of the Faith, despite the obvious and terrible risks to which their decision would expose them. They were offered the chance of evacuation to Australia; every pressure was brought upon them to accept it; every consideration of worldly prudence counseled acceptance. Yet they stayed, Why? Because there was one consideration in their Linda Kurti 6

7 hearts which outweighed all others. They were convinced that the Christ Who had called them in the first instance to follow Him to Papua was calling them to remain. So they remained...the whole incident, I say, is both inspiring and humiliating. It fills us, or should fill us, both with pride and with shame. Pride in the thought that our Church can still produce the human material of which saints and martyrs are made. And shame, as we contrast the quality of their discipleship with ours, the niggardliness of the support we have given to them with the splendour and completeness of their own self-offering. 7 The story of the Martyrs, which we commemorate each year on the 2nd September, in Australia and in Papua New Guinea, is unique only in that they were our own. There have been centuries of similar stories, and there are stories today of people who are selflessly giving of themselves in Christ s service without counting the cost. We now include in our commemoration of Martyr s Day the seven Melanesian Brothers who were killed during the tensions in the Solomon Islands in The Australian missionaries who died in PNG inspired a whole new generation of missionaries to that country following the war, including David Hand from England, who went on to become the first Archbishop of the newly independent Church of Papua New Guinea in I was at Bishop Hand s funeral in April in Port Moresby and the strength of public and private affection for the man, and the recognition of his contribution not just to the church but to the country, were testimony to the strength of faith and Christian service, demonstrated through the life and witness of the now independent Church of PNG. In Australia, that cohort of missionaries who were part of that postwar period of service in PNG are now growing old, and dying. Their stories are our stories. This is how we, over years, have salted the earth - sending people to live amongst people in diverse places and to minister to people in a variety of ways. In doing so, we have contributed in a small part to the coming of God s Kingdom through the love and sacrifice of many, those who went as missionaries but also those who stayed at home and supported them through financial sacrifice and through prayer. 7 ABM Review, 1943, Missions yesterday, today and tomorrow, August 1, p Linda Kurti 7

8 But we, and the church, have moved on. The Church in PNG has been independent for 30 years. They have established their own structures, their own strategies, and our partnership is evolving from something colonial to something more mutual. The joint project between ABM, the Church in PNG, and the Diocese of the Northern Territory to bring a PNG missionary to Australia was a significant symbol of the PNG church s growth and desire to become a sending church in its own right. Likewise, the Anglican Church of Melanesia has become a sending church through the mission of its indigenous Melanesian Brotherhood. Our partnership with the Church in Melanesia has evolved over 150 years, and currently we are supporting them in their work in peacebuilding and conflict resolution, in an exciting project which is providing new skills and ways of communal decision-making to villages across the many islands of the country. This project is making a significant difference, and the Church is highly visible in the Solomon Islands as an institution which is contributing to the rebuilding of lives and communities. Our partnership with the Episcopal Church of the Philippines is different again. The Church of the Philippines was begun by the Episcopal Church of the USA, and we do not have the history with them that we do with Melanesia and PNG. The Philippines church began to undertake community development work before we began to work with them, and in some ways our structures and projects have been influenced by the work of the Philippines church. We have learned from them, and they have learned from us. An interesting example of our joint learning is the research we are currently undertaking together with the University of New South Wales; we ve worked with a couple of doctoral students who are water engineers and who have been working with the Philippines church to develop water testing and methods of water catchment security. This is an unusual and exciting form of partnership not just between the two churches but with a separate and specialised partner, where we are all benefiting from what we are discovering. But more importantly, the Church is able through these projects to bring clean water, and improved health, to villages in the remote Cordillera mountains of the country, and in this way is also bringing the Gospel as well. In one village, where ABM donated the money for a water tank, the villagers decided to build a church in gratitude, where they had previously not even been Anglican. So while development is a practical way of caring for the needs of the poor, it is also one way of demonstrating Christ s mandate to care for all God s people. Linda Kurti 8

9 With each of our partner churches, we have sought to develop consultative processes, meeting together every couple of years for a period of time to ask the questions - what are the needs of the church? How is our relationship? How can we grow and learn from each other? How can ABM support the work of the church? We have taken our direction from our partners, and tried to move towards relations of reciprocity. We do this in a spirit of humility, recognising that in previous times ABM has acted within the spirit of the colonial age, and taken power and decision-making from the local people. We also do this recognising that while we may have material benefits which we can share with our partners, they also have much to give us in terms of understanding the Gospel and how to live it out in our lives. We know that sometimes we have done things well, and also that sometimes in our past we have not done things as well as hindsight might suggest. In all things, we seek to hear God s call, to listen and to learn from our partners, and together to work out how to contribute to God s Kingdom. I d like to give you a flavour of what that looks like, by playing a short video clip from our latest DVD, called Dressed for Action. The title comes from the passage in Luke, Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. (Lk 12:35-36) The DVD is one of several DVDs we have produced to provide a sense for our supporters of the life of the Christian church in other places. Our great team of staff and volunteers who have produced this and the other DVDs have provided snapshots into the daily lives of our partners, and this helps to tell the story of what mission means. This DVD was produced to promote the Good Friday Gift this year, and is available from the ABM office if you would like a copy. It has three stories on it. We have also produced in previous years a DVD with stories from PNG, and one with stories from the Philippines. This story is called: Miracle at Nablus. (Play video) As you can see, our partners are living out the Gospel in a variety of contexts, some easier than others. In Melanesia, for instance, nearly 40% of the population identify as Anglican, contrasting with the small number of Christians at all living in Egypt or Israel and Palestine. In Myanmar, the Anglican Church is largely represented by the Linda Kurti 9

10 persecuted Karen people, and operates quietly and within small communities and refugee camps, keeping the Spirit of Christ alive within a society led by a repressive dictatorship. In the Philippines, the Episcopal Church is respected as one which stood up to the Marcos dictatorship, and which now seeks to provide for the well-being of the whole community within an impoverished country. In Korea, by most measures a developed and successful country, the Anglican Church is a small but visible witness of Christ s love and a part of the minority Christian community, providing care and comfort to children, young people, and families. Salting the earth in Australia As the mission agency of the Anglican Church, ABM has also seen its mandate to inform and inspire the church for mission. We do that in a number of ways. Our Lent Appeal is not just an appeal for money but is an opportunity for us to assist the church to tell its international story, by providing resources for churches and schools which share the stories of our partners. Through our Encounter Program, we provide clergy from partner churches with opportunities for further training or for placements in parishes in Australia which expand their experience. We also bring partners over to visit who can share the stories of their ministries with Australian Anglicans. Australia is a big country but we do try over a period of years to be able to provide a visitor to most dioceses, and to Anglican schools. This year, for instance Bishop Nathan Ingen from PNG visited schools in the Newcastle Diocese, while the Rev. Irene Malilian from the Philippines visited schools in the Perth Diocese, and the Yarrabah dancers visited Shore School here in Sydney and also schools in Melbourne. Our Partner magazine is one way in which we try to share the stories of our partners. We also provide DVDs, like the clip which I just showed you; these are an excellent resource, providing short presentations which can be used by church groups or schools, and are a cost-effective way to bring together our partners with Australian Anglicans. Not everyone can undertake international travel, and it can be expensive. However, we do offer pilgrimage opportunities, and these can be an inspiring and lifechanging experience for young people and adults alike. One of our current staff members found his passion for mission on an ABM pilgrimage, and I have known teenagers who have worked hard to make it possible for them to go on a pilgrimage, to return home changed in heart and mind. It is a experiential encounter with God s Linda Kurti 10

11 work in the world through the church, which can be challenging, threatening, and transformational. We have found that it is most effective to arrange a trip for a specific group which already has a connection together, and we are happy to arrange a pilgrimage for schools to visit particular places. One of the things which we have discussed recently with some people is a pilgrimage for school chaplains, and I would be very happy to hear later about your response to that, whether you think it is a good idea and whether you would be interested in going on such a trip. I particularly want to share with you one resource which has been specifically developed for schools: this is our Fast Food Fast. We have run this with a few schools over the past two years, during Lent. During Lent, we ask kids to fast - one of the traditional ways of marking Lent - by giving up fast food. If not all of it, then maybe the soft drinks, or the pizzas. The idea is to help kids to be more aware of what it means to go without something, and to help them to learn about the ways of life for kids in other countries. We ask the kids to save the money they would have spent on fast food, and to give that to support ABM s activities in helping kids in others countries. In 2006 as part of the campaign we also introduced the wristband, a popular way of identifying with a particular social or justice issue, and these you will also find in your packs. I commend the Fast Food Fast to you, and ask that you consider whether it would be of use to your school next year. We can provide you with all the resources you need to get the kids involved, and it s a great way to introduce concepts of abundance, want, poverty, justice and our Gospel response to the challenges of the world. Mission in process Like all of God s creation, we are a work in progress. Our understanding of mission today has changed from what it was 50 or 150 years ago, although the fundamental principles of indigenisation and education, in the context of sharing the Gospel, remain constant. Looking at our original mandate, I can see that we are still attending to most of what we were established to do, although our way of understanding that mandate has changed. Rather than training Australian missionaries, we are now training Papua New Guinean, or Korean, or Egyptian missionaries. We promote the mission work of the church in Indigenous and Islander communities, only now we are resourcing Indigenous Christian leaders to do this themselves. We seek to work Linda Kurti 11

12 cooperatively with other mission agencies, here in Australia and overseas, and we are working actively with Australian mission agencies to find common ground in our concern for Indigenous Anglican life and witness. We continue to support the Melanesian Mission, only now it is the independent Anglican Church of Melanesia. I am delighted today that not only are the heads of the Melanesian Anglican schools present, but the Rev. Canon Sam Sahu, the head of the Melanesian Board of Mission is also present. Canon Sam is my counterpart in the Church of Melanesia and his visit to Sydney to meet the Board and to spend time with staff and supporters has been valuable to me personally, and I hope to our respective agencies. This type of partnership visit, where we share our experiences and learn from the way in which we each work, is something to which ABM is committed and which we will continue. And we continue to generally further unity in the mission of the Church (to use the original language of our mandate), understanding as well that being Anglican there will be a diversity of opinion as to what mission means and how it is undertaken. But in the spirit of our broad church we embrace the opportunity and look forward to the dialogue. ABM in the next five years will continue to work to build strong partnerships of mutuality and reciprocity, will continue to work for a reconciled Australia and a strengthened Indigenous Anglican leadership, and will continue to learn from our partners, our community, and ourselves as volunteers, staff, and Board. This period of time is only one in a long history, but it is my prayer that ABM will continue to be an effective witness, to be the salt of the earth, for as long as God calls us to do so. We live out our call in loving faith and trust, leaving the ultimate outcomes to God. It is an exciting call, and I hope that we can work together to help to inspire new generations to engage in God s mission. Please let me know how you think we can help participate in your efforts to ensure that our next generation of Australians is inspired by the Gospel to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and care for the sick, and in all things to live in response to God s redeeming love. Thank you. Linda Kurti 12

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